Leap year Sarah wins her hunk of “Burning Love”

Leap Year proposer Sarah Baldwin reached the heights of passion when she proposed to her fireman boyfriend.

Secretive Sarah hid away at the top of a practice tower as Kieran Hatchard, climbed towards her in what he thought was a routine evening ladder drill.

As Kieran reached the top Sarah sprang her February 29 surprise by boldly producing an engagement ring and asking him: “Will you marry me?”

Sarah went down on one knee for the proposal, at the top of the tower, and presented Kieran with a palladium wedding band from Gold Arts in Chichester. This was followed by a live appearance from local singer and performer Paul Brigstock, who sang the Jason Mraz hit “I won’t give up” to the happy couple. The song contains

The lines: “I won’t give up on us. Even if the skies get rough. I’m giving you all my love. I’m still looking up.” Afterwards it was celebrations all round at the Billingshurst fire station, which had never seen such a case of “Burning Love”.

Romantic Sarah, 26, recalled their first meeting and said: “We met on January 28 in 2010.

“Kieran came into the local leisure centre for a gym induction, which I carried out. He tells me he fell in love with me the moment we met. From then we would see each other when he came in for workouts.

“We had bad snow that year and I needed somewhere to stay. Kieran kindly offered and I stayed at his place as friends, where we started to get to know each other.

“Facebook then connected us after an exchange of phone numbers and the rest is history.

“We have now been together for just over six years, Kieran is the kindest, most caring person I know and we love each other unconditionally.“

Kieran, 27, from Billingshurst, is a retained fire fighter for Billingshurst and works at Anco storage, a local family-run shelfing and racking company.

Sarah, from Aldwick, said: “We are looking to purchase our first home this year and can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together.”